Review: 'Guys and Dolls' soars at Berkeley Playhouse

Even when it debuted on Broadway in 1950, the Great White Way's sidewalks probably weren't filled with the kinds of characters you find in "Guys and Dolls."

The classic musical was based on the tales of the early 20th-century newsman Damon Runyon, who gained fame with his descriptions of the gamblers, hustlers, actors and gangsters who roamed New York a decade or two earlier.

The show has "outdated" written all over it, so the Berkeley Playhouse and director Jon Tracy are staging "Guys and Dolls" with a more timeless, animated-film feel that heightens interest without changing much of the script or any of the songs. The show opens on a minimally dressed set, with a representational urban skyscape at the rear, and a pair of monotone walls pointing in a V-shape toward the back of the stage.

And, as in the standard "Guys and Dolls" opener, we are presented with a gaggle of Broadway denizens prowling for, well, whatever you look for on a street that never sleeps.

Only these characters aren't really specific types, but clusters of similarly dressed people moving along the street in an abstract sort of choreography (by Chris Black). But to old hands, the feel is familiar, starting with the overture, "Runyonland," followed by "Fugue for Tinhorns" ("Got the horse right here, his name is Paul Revere ...").

Then, once we've seen the rescue mission soldiers march across the stage and heard the tune about Nathan Detroit's "oldest established permanent, floating crap game in New York," we're all set for the ride.

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After that, we can get down to characters, like Miss Adelaide (Sarah Mitchell), the star attraction at New York's Hot Box Club, who has been engaged to Nathan (Michael Scott Wells) for 14 years. Nathan assures her they'll be getting married any day now. The stakes are raised big time when Sky Masterson (Carmichael J. Blankenship) breezes in from Las Vegas looking for action, but instead finds Sarah Brown (Angel Burgess), second in command at the mission and vows to woo her (to the tune of a big-bucks bet with Nathan).

The four leads are simply fantastic, dishing up the Broadway classics, "If I Were a Bell," "My Time of Day," "I've Never Been in Love Before," and "Adelaide's Lament," among many others, with incredible skill.

The supporting cast, an array of genuine characters, pitches in nicely with "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat," "More I Cannot Wish You," "Take Back Your Mink," and many more, providing just the right Manhattan-after-midnight atmosphere.

Berkeley's historic Julia Morgan Theatre is a great place to see the show in a fairly intimate setting and discover, or rediscover, there's a reason "Guys and Dolls" remains vital after more than 60 years. It's a gem of a show, well-cast for this production and masterfully directed by Tracy.